YouTube is the world’s largest public streaming platform. Anyone can create a channel (Online Tech Tips has a YouTube channel too!), Create content and then share it with the world. YouTube has become a viable business model for many people, allowing them to make significant amounts of money while doing what they love.
Where does the money come from? Advertisements! That’s right, almost every YouTube video displays one or more advertisements, with the revenue going to both the creator and YouTube itself. However, the YouTube Premium subscription service has now completely changed that dynamic.
YouTube Premium and Is It Worth It?”/>
But what is YouTube Premium? Should you sign up for this?
What is YouTube Premium?
YouTube Premium is a paid subscription similar to Netflix or Amazon Prime Video However, unlike these services, you can access most YouTube videos for free. So what exactly do you get if you pay the asking price for this enhanced YouTube experience?
YouTube Premium and Is It Worth It?”/>
Here are the main features:
- No ads.
- YouTube Originals.
- YouTube downloads and in-app background playback.
- Access to YouTube Music Premium.
- YouTube Kids ad-free with downloads.
It may not be immediately obvious why some of these features can cost money, but we’ll unpack each one to demonstrate why they are (or aren’t) a good reason to get a YouTube Premium subscription.
An Ads-Free YouTube Experience
In our opinion, this is definitely the number one reason for the YouTube Premium subscription. Using YouTube without constantly attacking ads is a revelation.
YouTube Premium and Is It Worth It?”/>
If you are only watching a cameo clip, this may not be something you really notice. However, most of us in the tech blogging world are very active on YouTube, and after the third, fourth and fifth commercial breaks in a long video, most people will grind their teeth! Once you get to know YouTube, where there were no ads at all, it will be incredibly difficult to go back.
If YouTube ads really annoy you, you don’t need to read any further. For you, this service is already worth it.
Original content
What’s less appealing is YouTube‘s proposal for original content. This is, of course, largely a matter of personal taste, but we did not find any “must-watch†content among the small amount of material submitted to the YouTube Originals section.
YouTube Premium and Is It Worth It?”/>
If you want to know exactly what’s on offer, Wikipedia has a categorized list of YouTube Originals, but it’s not very long.
Download videos using the YouTube app
Depending on where you live, you may already have the option to download YouTube videos using the YouTube mobile app. Some time ago YouTube opened this feature for free for developing countries, but if you are not located in one of the specified countries, you will have to pay for this privilege.
As a YouTube Premium subscriber, you will now see a download button below the video in the YouTube app. You can use this button to upload videos to local storage on your phone or tablet. This is useful for downloading videos when using Wi-Fi and then saving your mobile data plan. It is also useful if you want to watch videos on a plane or on the subway.
YouTube Premium and Is It Worth It?”/>
An active internet connection is only required every 30 days to renew your downloaded videos, so you can use this feature while out in the wilderness or any other situation where you won’t have internet for a long time. It’s a nifty feature, but from YouTube‘s side it seems a little cocky to put it up for paywalls.
Allow videos to play in the background
Speaking of insolence, paying for YouTube Premium allows you to listen to YouTube videos in the background while switching to other apps. Like it’s a podcast.
YouTube Premium and Is It Worth It?”/>
This is another feature that YouTube has no real reason to hide behind a paywall, other than to expand the list of additional benefits. How useful this feature is also depends on what kind of content you are watching. Most people would prefer to pause the video if they need to switch to their email app or browser.
YouTube Music Premium is a great deal
Music streaming is likely the future, and there are plenty to choose from. Apple Music, Spotify and Pandora are just three big names in the music streaming game.
YouTube Music Premium offers its own dedicated mobile app and a separate section in the YouTube app for the Samsung TVs we tested it with. On desktop systems, only the web interface is currently available, so music downloads are limited to mobile devices.
YouTube Premium and Is It Worth It?”/>
Compared to industry leaders like Apple Music, our first impressions are that YouTube Music as a whole lacks perfection, but it’s a great streaming platform and is included with YouTube Premium.
Therefore, it is tempting to ditch the existing music service in favor of YouTube Premium with the addition of Music Premium. You can get YouTube Music Premium as a standalone service, but it only saves you $ 2.
Embed YouTube Kids
There is a lot of controversy surrounding children’s content (and fake children’s content) on YouTube, which is partly why the YouTube Kids app exists.
YouTube Premium and Is It Worth It?”/>
If you have kids and they watch YouTube Kids, you’ll be glad to know that they won’t have to see ads either. This could save you even more money considering all the toy advertisements they won’t see.
How much does YouTube Premium cost?
YouTube Premium prices vary from region to region, but in North America you’ll pay $ 11.99 for a single-user subscription and $ 17.99 for a family plan, which can include five people in your household. Each person has their own YouTube Premium and Music subscription, so these are huge savings.
YouTube Premium and Is It Worth It?”/>
As mentioned a bit earlier, the music-only option costs $ 9.99, which doesn’t make sense for just about everyone but one person who wants music but never watches YouTube
Who is suitable for YouTube Premium?
Overall, we think YouTube Premium is excellent value for money, especially when it comes to the family plan. Whether it is worth your money is another matter. If one of these use cases suits you, you probably want to take a serious look at YouTube Premium:
- You watch YouTube every day.
- You often don’t have internet or expensive mobile data.
- You are watching content that you can listen to.
- You want to listen to YouTube‘s extensive music library without ads.
YouTube Premium and Is It Worth It?”/>
Any of these use cases are good enough to offset the price tag of YouTube Premium. In fact, you don’t even need to save money to try. At the time of writing, YouTube is offering a month-long trial so you can see for yourself if you’re really ready to take on this high-quality YouTube service.
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